Monday, December 28, 2015

Don't Control Your Anger, Transform It - OSHO

All the moralists try to change man on the periphery. Your character is the periphery: you don't bring any character into the world, you come absolutely characterless, a blank sheet, and all that you call your character is written by others. Your parents, society, teachers, teachings -- all are conditionings. You come as a blank sheet, and whatsoever is written on you comes from others; so unless you become a blank sheet again you will not know what nature is, you will not know what Brahma is, you will not know what Tao is.

So the problem is not how to have a strong character, the problem is not how to attain no-anger, how not to be disturbed -- no, that is not the problem. The problem is how to change your consciousness from the periphery to the centre. Then suddenly you see that you have always been calm. Then you can look at the periphery from a distance, and the distance is so vast, infinite, that you can watch as if it is not happening to you. In fact, it never happens to you. Even when you are completely lost in it, it never happens to you: something in you remains undisturbed, something in you remains beyond, something in you remains a witness.

It is bad for the anger to move within, because that means your whole body-mind structure will be poisoned by it.

So the whole problem for the seeker is how to shift his attention from the periphery to the centre; how to be merged with that which is unchanging, and not to be identified with that which is just a boundary. On the boundary others are very influential, because on the boundary change is natural. The periphery will go on changing-- even a buddha's periphery changes.

The difference between a buddha and you is not a difference of character -- remember this; it is not a difference of morality, it is not a difference in virtue or non-virtue, it is a difference in where you are grounded.

You are grounded on the periphery; a buddha is grounded in the centre. He can look at his own periphery from a distance; when you hit him he can see it as if you have hit somebody else, because the centre is so distant. It's as if he is a watcher on the hills and something is happening in the valleys and he can see it. This is the first thing to be understood.

The second thing: it is very easy to control, it is very difficult to transform. You can control your anger, but what will you do? You will suppress it. And what happens when you suppress a certain thing? The direction of its movement changes: it was going out, and if you suppress it, it starts going in -- just its direction changes.

And for anger to go out was good, because the poison needs to be thrown out. It is bad for the anger to move within, because that means your whole body-mind structure will be poisoned by it. And then if you go on doing this for a long time... as everybody has been doing, because society teaches control, not transformation.

Society says "control yourself", and through controlling, all the negative things have been thrown deeper and deeper into the unconscious, and then they become a constant thing within you. Then it is not a question of your being angry sometimes and sometimes not -- you are simply angry. Sometimes you explode, and sometimes you don't explode because there is no excuse, or you have to find an excuse. And remember, you can find an excuse anywhere!

[D]eep orgasm through love becomes impossible -- because you are afraid deep down that if you move totally without control, you may kill your wife...

You are angry. Because you have suppressed so much anger, now there are no moments when you are not angry; at the most, sometimes you are less angry, sometimes more. Your whole being is poisoned by suppression. You eat with anger -- and it has a different quality when a person eats without anger: it is beautiful to watch him, because he eats non-violently. He may be eating meat, but he eats non-violently; you may be eating just vegetables and fruits, but if anger is suppressed, you eat violently.

...Then this will move in every way, in every arena of your life: you will make love, but it will be more like violence than like love, it will have much aggression in it. Because you never observe one another making love, you don't know what is happening, and you cannot know what is happening to you because you are almost always so much in aggression.

That's why deep orgasm through love becomes impossible -- because you are afraid deep down that if you move totally without control, you may kill your wife or kill your beloved, or the wife may kill the husband or the lover. You become so afraid of your own anger! Next time you make love, watch: you will be doing the same movements as are done when you are aggressive. Watch the face, have a mirror around so you can see what is happening to your face! All the distortions of anger and aggression will be there.

...Through suppression, the mind becomes split. The part that you accept becomes the conscious, and the part that you deny becomes the unconscious. This division is not natural, the division happens because of repression. And into the unconscious you go on throwing all the rubbish that society rejects -- but remember, whatsoever you throw in there becomes more and more part of you: it goes into your hands, into your bones, into your blood, into your heartbeat. Now psychologists say that so many diseases are caused by repressed emotions: so many heart failures means so much anger has been repressed in the heart, so much hatred that the heart is poisoned.

Why? Why does man suppress so much and become unhealthy? Because society teaches you to control, not to transform, and the way of transformation is totally different.

The first thing: in controlling you repress, in transformation you express. But there is no need to express on somebody else...

The first thing: in controlling you repress, in transformation you express. But there is no need to express on somebody else because the "somebody else" is just irrelevant. Next time you feel angry go and run around the house seven times, and after it sit under a tree and watch where the anger has gone. You have not repressed it, you have not controlled it, you have not thrown it on somebody else -- because if you throw it on somebody else a chain is created, because the other is as foolish as you, as unconscious as you. If you throw it on another, and if the other is an enlightened person, there will be no trouble; he will help you to throw and release it and go through a catharsis. But the other is as ignorant as you -- if you throw anger on him he will react. He will throw more anger on you, he is repressed as much as you are. Then there comes a chain: you throw on him, he throws on you, and you both become enemies.

Don't throw it on anybody. It is the same as when you feel like vomiting: you don't go and vomit on somebody. You go to the bathroom and vomit! It cleanses the whole body -- if you suppress the vomit it will be dangerous, and when you have vomited you will feel fresh, you will feel unburdened, unloaded, good, healthy. Something was wrong in the food that you took and the body rejects it. Don't go on forcing it inside.

Anger is just a mental vomit. Something is wrong that you have taken in and your whole psychic being wants to throw it out, but there is no need to throw it out on somebody. Because people throw it on others, society tells them to control it.

There is no need to throw anger on anybody. You can go to your bathroom, you can go on a long walk; it means that something is inside that needs fast activity so that it is released. Just do a little jogging and you will feel it is released, or take a pillow and beat the pillow, fight with the pillow, and bite the pillow until your hands and teeth are relaxed. Within a five-minute catharsis you will feel unburdened, and once you know this you will never throw it on anybody, because that is absolutely foolish.

[T]ake a pillow and beat the pillow, fight with the pillow... The pillow is enlightened, a buddha. The pillow will not react, and the pillow will not go to any court...

The first thing in transformation, then, is to express anger, but not on anybody, because if you express it on somebody you cannot express it totally. You may like to kill, but it is not possible; you may like to bite, but it is not possible. But that can be done to a pillow. The pillow is enlightened, a buddha. The pillow will not react, and the pillow will not go to any court, and the pillow will not bring any enmity against you, and the pillow will not do anything. The pillow will be happy and the pillow will laugh at you!

The second thing to remember: be aware.

In controlling, no awareness is needed; you simply do it mechanically, like a robot. The anger comes and there is a mechanism; suddenly your whole being becomes narrow and closed. If you are watchful control may not be so easy.

Society never teaches you to be watchful, because when somebody is watchful, he is wide open. That is part of awareness. One is open, and if you want to suppress something and you are open, it is contradictory, it may come out. The society teaches you how to close yourself in, how to cave yourself in...don't allow even a small window for anything to go out.

But remember: when nothing goes out, nothing comes in either. When the anger cannot go out, you are closed. If you touch a beautiful rock, nothing goes in; you look at a flower, nothing goes in: your eyes are dead and closed. You kiss a person; nothing goes in, because you are closed. You live an insensitive life.

Sensitivity grows with awareness. Through control you become dull and dead. That is part of the mechanism of control: if you are dull and dead then nothing will affect you, as if the body has become a citadel, a defence. Nothing will affect you, neither insult nor love.

But this control is at a very great cost, an unnecessary cost; then it becomes the whole effort in life: how to control yourself -- and then die! The whole effort of control takes all your energy, and then you simply die. And life becomes a dull and dead thing; you somehow carry it on.

Sensitivity grows with awareness. Through control you become dull and dead... if you are dull and dead then nothing will affect you.

Society teaches you control and condemnation, because a child will control only when he feels something is condemned. Anger is bad; sex is bad; everything that has to be controlled has to be made to look like a sin to the child, to look like evil.

A deep condemnation enters about all that is alive. And sex is the most alive thing -- has to be! It is the source. Anger is also a most alive thing, because it is a protective force. If a child cannot be angry at all, he will not be able to survive. You have to be angry in certain moments. The child has to show his own being, the child has to stand in certain moments upon his own ground; otherwise he will have no backbone.

Anger is beautiful; sex is beautiful. But beautiful things can go ugly. That depends on you. If you condemn them, they become ugly; if you transform them, they become divine. Anger transformed becomes compassion... because the energy is the same. A buddha is compassionate: from where does his compassion come? This is the same energy that was moving in anger; now it is not moving in anger, the same energy is transformed into compassion. From where does love come? A buddha is loving; a Jesus is love. The same energy that moves into sex becomes love.

So remember, if you condemn a natural phenomenon it becomes poisonous, it destroys you, it becomes destructive and suicidal. If you transform it, it becomes divine, it becomes a god-force, it becomes an elixir; you attain through it to immortality, to a deathless being. But transformation is needed.

In transformation you never control, you simply become more aware. Anger is happening: you have to be aware that anger is happening -- watch it! It is a beautiful phenomenon... energy moving within you, becoming hot!

Anger is beautiful; sex is beautiful. But beautiful things can go ugly. If you condemn them, they become ugly; if you transform them, they become divine.

It is just like electricity in the clouds. People were always afraid of electricity; they thought in olden days, when they were ignorant, that this electricity was god being angry, being threatening, trying to punish -- creating fear so that people would become worshippers, so that people would feel that god was there and he would punish them.

But now we have domesticated that god. Now that god runs through your fan, through your air conditioner, through the fridge: whatsoever you need, that god serves. That god has become a domestic force... no longer angry and no longer threatening. Through science an outer force has been transformed into a friend.

The same happens through religion for inner forces.

Anger is just like electricity in your body: you don't know what to do with it. Either you kill somebody else or you kill yourself. Society says if you kill yourself it is okay, it is your concern, but don't kill anybody else -- and as far as society goes that is okay. So either you become aggressive or you become repressive.

Religion says both are wrong. The basic thing that is needed is to become aware and to know the secret of this energy, anger, this inner electricity. It is electricity because you become hot; when you are angry your temperature goes hot, and you cannot understand the coolness of a buddha, because when anger is transformed into compassion everything is cool. A deep coolness happens. A buddha is never hot; he is always cool, centred, because he now knows how to use the inner electricity. Electricity is hot; it becomes the source of air conditioning. Anger is hot -- it becomes the source of compassion.

Compassion is an inner air conditioning. Suddenly everything is cool and beautiful, and nothing can disturb you, and the whole existence is transformed into a friend. Now there are no more enemies.. .because when you look through the eyes of anger, somebody becomes an enemy; when you look through the eyes of compassion, everybody is a friend, a neighbour. When you love, everywhere is god; when you hate, everywhere is the devil. It is your standpoint that is projected onto reality.

If you become aware of your anger, understanding penetrates. Just watching, with no judgment, not saying good, not saying bad, just watching in your inner sky.

Awareness is needed, not condemnation -- and through awareness transformation happens spontaneously. If you become aware of your anger, understanding penetrates. Just watching, with no judgment, not saying good, not saying bad, just watching in your inner sky. There is lightning, anger, you feel hot, the whole nervous system shaking and quaking, and you feel a tremor all over the body -- a beautiful moment, because when energy functions you can watch it easily; when it is not functioning you cannot watch.

Close your eyes and meditate on it. Don't fight, just look at what is happening -- the whole sky filled with electricity, so much lightning, so much beauty -- just lie down on the ground and look at the sky and watch. Then do the same inside.

Clouds are there, because without clouds there can be no lightning -- dark clouds are there, thoughts. Somebody has insulted you, somebody has laughed at you, somebody has said this or that... many clouds, dark clouds in the inner sky and much lightning. Watch! It is a beautiful scene, terrible also, because you don't understand. It is mysterious, and if mystery is not understood it becomes terrible, you are afraid of it. And whenever a mystery is understood, it becomes a grace, a gift, because now you have the keys -- and with keys you are the master.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

CHANGE

Misery arises because we don´t allow change to happen. We cling, we want things to be static. If you love a woman you want her tomorrow too, the same way as she is yours today. That´s how misery arises. Nobody can be certain about the next moment – what to say about tomorrow?

A man of awareness knows that life is constantly changing. Life is change. There is only one thing permanent, and that is change. Except change, everything else changes. To accept this nature of life, to accept this changing existence with all its seasons and moods, this constant flow that never stops for a single moment, is to be blissful. Then nobody can disturb your bliss. It is your hankering for permanency that creates troubles for you. If you want to live in a life with no change – you are asking the impossible.

A man of awareness becomes courageous enough to accept the changing phenomena. In that very acceptance is bliss. Then all is good. Then you are never frustrated.

Monday, December 21, 2015

The most difficult thing in your life -- which should really be the easiest -- is to sit by the side of the flow of your mind. Your mind is just like a river. Thoughts and thoughts and a crowd of thoughts go on passing. You simply sit by the bank, unconcerned, just a witness, and you are in for a great surprise.

Slowly slowly, as you become more and more centred and simply a witness, thoughts start disappearing. They can exist only with your identification. You give energy to your mind. When you pull yourself out, you have stopped giving nourishment to the mind. And once there is no nourishment -- thoughts are very fragile things -- they start dying out.

You are here with me to learn a very simple thing: to enjoy peace, to enjoy silence, to enjoy something that is within you...

Soon there is silence, there is peace. And this peace is not the peace of a cemetery. This peace is not dead, it is not flat. It is such a tremendous experience that once you have reached the first rung of the ladder, the ladder goes to infinity. You can go on and on discovering new layers of peace. This is the real excitement, unending excitement.

That's the meaning of the word "ecstasy": unending excitement. You cannot exhaust it, you cannot come to a point where you say, "There is no more to discover and I am feeling flat." It has never happened. On my own authority I say to you, I have been going as fast as possible, deeper and deeper into silence, but there is no bottom, there is no limit.

Each moment of silence brings new fragrance. Peace brings new flowers. Nothing is said, but much is heard. Nothing is shown, but much is seen. Nobody guides you, but some magnetic force of peace itself takes you farther and farther away from the mind, from the body, from the neighbours, from the wife, from the husband. And the excitement is continuously deepening.

Unless we can create millions of people around the earth who have experienced this kind of peace, war is inevitable, because people cannot survive flat lives. It is better to go into a war and have a little excitement, although it means death.

If a man who has not known inner peace is forced to live peacefully, he will either murder or kill himself. Even that will provide some excitement. Excitement is a great nourishment, but only the right kind of excitement is nourishment. The wrong kind of excitement is poison. And up to now humanity has been dominated by the wrong kind of excitement.

You are here with me to learn a very simple thing: to enjoy peace, to enjoy silence, to enjoy something that is within you and you do not have to depend on others for.

Friday, December 18, 2015

"Be grateful to
everyone, because everybody is creating a space for you to be transformed –
even those who think they are obstructing you, even those whom you think are
enemies. Your friends, your enemies, good people and bad people, favorable
circumstances, unfavorable circumstances – all together they are creating the
context in which you can be transformed and become a buddha. Be grateful to
all. To those who have helped, to those who have hindered, to those who have
been indifferent. Be grateful to all, because all together they are creating
the context in which buddhas are born, in which you can become a buddha."

Monday, November 30, 2015

"Love makes no conditions, no ifs, no buts. Love never says, "Fulfill these requirements, then I will love you." Love is like breathing: when it happens you are simply love. It does not matter who comes close to you, the sinner or the saint. Whosoever comes close to you starts feeling the vibe of love, is rejoiced. Love is unconditional giving – but only those are capable of giving who have."

Saturday, November 28, 2015

OshoOsho On TopicsMind

MIND

People come to me and they ask, “How to attain a peaceful mind?” I say to them, “There exists nothing like that: peaceful mind. Never heard of it.”

Mind is never peaceful; no-mind is peace. Mind itself can never be peaceful, silent. The very nature of the mind is to be tense, to be in confusion. Mind can never be clear, it cannot have clarity, because mind is by nature confusion, cloudiness. Clarity is possible without mind, peace is possible without mind; silence is possible without mind, so never try to attain a silent mind. If you do, from the very beginning you are moving in an impossible dimension.

Friday, November 27, 2015

Thursday, November 26, 2015

CONSCIOUS EATING - we picked this meditation and awareness exercise from "Meditation for Busy People" specifically for the holidays. Meditation is not some 'spiritual practice', it is a constant opportunity to become aware - get out of robot-like patterns and enjoy life to the fullest. "If taste is not lived, you are just stuffing yourself. Go slowly and be aware of the taste. Do not just go on swallowing things. Taste them unhurriedly and become the taste."

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Sadhguru: If you were very blissful and ecstatic at this moment, would you think, “What is the purpose of life?” – No. Only when in some way, life has become burdensome, these questions arise: “To be or not to be?” “Is there a good enough purpose for me to exist?”

Your experience of life itself has not become grand and worthwhile enough. That is why you are trying to find a meaning. If just sitting here and breathing was ecstatic for you, you wouldn’t ask, “What is the purpose of life?” So, before you ask that question, the most important thing is you need to learn to enhance this life to its maximum potential. When I say “life,” you don’t even know what life is. All you have right now is your body and mind. Make them as pleasant as you can. Only when your physical body and mind are in a state of pleasantness, everything in you works at its best. Your intelligence works at its best only when you are joyful and blissful. If a human being manages to remain in a continual state of blissfulness, let’s say for 24 hours, one’s intelligence will double. There is enough medical evidence to prove this today.

You don’t have to do anything. Just being alive is grand enough.

Have you spent a single day in your life without a moment ofagitation, irritation, anger, anxiety, or anything like that? In all these years, have you spent 24 hours just blissfully? Not just you, almost the whole of humanity has to answer this question with a “no.” If you are not blissful one day, that’s understandable. But not having been blissful for a single day – that means something very fundamental is wrong. Without understanding the fundamentals of what this human mechanism is, you are trying to operate it. It is just like you got into a car, you didn’t know what these three pedals were for, and you kicked any one of them whenever you felt like it. You know what a jerky driver you would be?

Right now your wellbeing is that jerky. You know moments of joyfulness, you know moments of love, you know moments of blissfulness, you know moments of ecstasy in your life – but you are not able to sustain this. It is jerky because you are trying to operate your life without understanding the sophistication of the mechanism you are handling.

So, “What is the purpose?” This question arises because you have not experienced the grandeur of existence. You have not experienced the magnificent nature of your being. That is why you are asking, “What is the purpose? What should I do to make this life meaningful?” You don’t have to do anything. If you could sit here for one moment and experience this, you would know you don’t have to do anything. Just being alive is grand enough.

Monday, November 23, 2015

OshoOsho On TopicsCelebration

CELEBRATION

Celebration is the foundation of my way of living – not renunciation but rejoicing. Rejoice in all the beauties, all the joys, all that life offers, because this whole life is a gift of God.

To me, life and God are synonymous. In fact, life is a far better word than the word “God.” It is only a philosophical term, while life is real, existential. The word "God" exists only in scriptures. It is a word, a mere word. Life is within you and without you – in the trees, in the clouds, in the stars. This whole existence is a dance of life.

Love life. Live your life totally, be drunk with the divine through life. I am in tremendous love with life, hence I teach celebration. Everything has to be celebrated; everything has to be lived, loved. To me nothing is mundane and nothing is sacred. All is sacred, from the lowest rung of the ladder to the highest rung. It is the same ladder: from the body to the soul, from the physical to the spiritual, from sex to samadhi – everything is divine!

Saturday, November 21, 2015

What is Meditation?Flowering

FLOWERING

"Remember, meditation will bring you more and more intelligence, infinite intelligence, a radial intelligence. Meditation will make you more alive and sensitive; your life will become richer.

"Look at the ascetics: their life has become almost as if it is not life. These people are not meditators. They may be masochists, torturing themselves and enjoying the torture... The mind is very cunning, it goes on doing things and rationalizing them.

"Ordinarily you are violent towards others but the mind is very cunning – it can learn non-violence, it can preach nonviolence, then it becomes violent towards itself. And the violence that you do on your own self is respected by people because they have an idea that to be an ascetic is to be religious. That is sheer nonsense. God is not an ascetic, otherwise there would be no flowers, there would be no green trees, only deserts. God is not an ascetic, otherwise there would be no song in life, no dance in life – only cemeteries and cemeteries. God is not an ascetic: God enjoys life. God is more Epicurean than you can imagine. If you think about God, think in terms of Epicurus. God is a constant search for more and more happiness, joy, ecstasy. Remember that.

"But mind is very cunning. It can rationalize paralysis as meditation; it can rationalize dullness as transcendence: it can rationalize deadness as renunciation. Watch out. Always remember that if you are moving in the right direction, you will go on flowering."

Friday, November 20, 2015

UNHAPPINESS - osho

If you are unhappy, that simply means that you have learned tricks for being unhappy. Nothing else! Unhappiness depends on the frame of your mind. There are people who are unhappy in all kinds of situations. They have a certain program in their mind that transforms everything into unhappiness. If you tell them about the beauty of the rose, they immediately start counting the thorns. If you say to them, "What a beautiful morning, what a sunny day!" they will say, "Only one day between two dark nights, so why are you making so much fuss?"

The same thing can be seen from a positive reference; then suddenly each night is surrounded by two days. And then suddenly it is a miracle that the rose is possible, that such a delicate flower is possible among so many thorns.

All depends on what kind of frame you are carrying in your head. Millions of people are carrying crosses. Naturally, obviously, they are burdened; their life is a drag. Their frame is such that it immediately becomes focused on everything that is negative. It magnifies the negative. That is a morbid approach towards life, pathological. But they go on thinking, "What can we do? The world is such."

No, the world is not such! The world is absolutely neutral. It has thorns, it has roses, it has nights, it has days. The world is utterly neutral, balanced - it has all. Now it depends on you as to what you choose. That´s how people create hell and heaven on the same earth.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Monday, November 16, 2015

The recent attacks in Paris have triggered a wave of grief and condemnation. However, these human-caused calamities seem to recur with terrifying regularity around the world. In this article, Sadhguru looks at the very nature of religious terrorism, and what the world needs to do about it.

Sadhguru: Religious terrorism is a major part of the mechanism of terror in the world today. The purpose of terrorism is not war but to cripple a society with fear. Their aim is to spread panic among the people, divide the society, derail the economic growth of the country, create strife, violence and lawlessness at every level – in other words, reduce a country to a failed state.

Religious philosophies that have world-conquering ambitions have the propensity for causing a grievous blow to all life upon the planet. Of all the kinds of violence, particularly religion-motivated terrorism is the most dangerous kind. You can speak reason to a man who is fighting for anything else, but when a man believes he is fighting for his God, there is no reasoning with him. When people are fighting for money, property, or something else, it is possible to negotiate with them because they are life-oriented; but those who think they are fighting for God, or working for God or doing God’s work are only too eager to die and take all of us with them.

Moving From Political Correctness to Solutions

In the last two millennia, there has been much uninstigated violence unleashed upon various people of the world by the religious groups across the planet. This landscape of violence that they have left while continuously talking about peace, love and compassion is abhorrent and has scary scenarios hidden in them.

It is time to address some fundamental causes that propel these types of violent actions in the name of religion. Public discourse needs to move from the politically correct stance to striving for solutions for the ills of our times. In the very sacred texts that are purported to be the words of God, there is very strong stimulus for violence against all who do not share the belief that some have chosen or been taught to believe.

Whatever the reason these words of instigation got into sacred books, it is time that what is not suitable is expunged – god willing. We can ask, if god says nothing it wouldn’t be a crime to take it as an affirmative. Ensuring that no one needs to be a god’s soldier is the absolute need of the day. For all the other causes of violence, we can find solutions at some point but for those who fight for their gods, there is no solution. You cannot wean them of that because it is an eternal cause and damnation for the world. Only if all religious groups are willing to start looking at the prospect of expunging stimulus for violence from their sacred books will there be a possibility of a solution. It is not just one group, all should strive. It is not going to be an easy exercise, but it has to start at some point of time.

Editor’s Note: Sadhguru explores war, peace and violence in the ebook “Culture of Peace” available at Isha Downloads. Pay what you wish and download it.

As I kissed the Autumnal sky
with a passion, a full blooded
Woman would long for in her
inevitable lonely nights that
associates with long lost Beloved.

The colours change in a
serious blush that can not
escape even the sightless eyes
of the blind. The leafy panels fall
with their job done, making way
for a seasonal death or a
moult with which life takes
a break from daily chores of
harvesting light, air and food.
From the mundane chores to
a seemingly ascetic stillness.
A break from life but not in death
A break from life to spring back
to renewed life of leaf, flowers and fruit.